Trending News: Tag Heuer Is The First Luxury Watchmaker To Make A Smart Watch

Why Is This Important?

Long Story Short

Tag Heuer has become the first Swiss luxury watchmaker to unveil a smart watch. Its Connected timepiece is a collaboration with Intel and Android Wear.

Long Story

Swiss watchmaking is not an industry to rush to keep up with the times. The luxury watch market is one that revels in its own history and traditions, more often looking back than forward. Until today, perhaps. As first reported in Baselworld back in March, Tag Heuer is introducing its first smart timepiece, the Connected Watch.

Modelled on the brand's classic Carrera watch, it is a chunky (but lightweight) 46.2mm titanium case with a sapphire display. From a distance, it looks like one of Tag Heuer's mechanical watches but the digital dial is interchangeable, displaying apps and tracking data at the touch of the crown.

Tag Heuer

Here are some of the key details:

Gyroscopic sensors record basic fitness markers, such as step count or calories, while separate apps will be tailored to specific goals or activities, such as golf

Depending on which dial you opt for, you can track your progress against the day's goals on the face of the watch

It is available for both Android Wear and iOS

It has 4GB of onboard storage for apps and media

Notifications come through via vibrations, not sounds

It comes with a rubberised strap in one of seven colours

The Tag Heuer Connected Watch is available from 9 November in the US at $1500. International rollout details are still TBC.

Many speculated about how the luxury watch market would respond to the much-hyped launch of the Apple Watch and its competitors. In Tag Heuer's case, the answer has been to join forces with Silicon Valley, bridging the luxury and high-tech worlds in a way that's not dissimilar to Apple's collaboration with Hermes.

And if the brand is at all hedging its bets about whether people are ready for a luxury smart watch, there is a get-out clause. If, after two years, you don't want to upgrade your Connected Watch, you can exchange it for a mechanical Tag Heuer for an additional cost of $1500.

Of course, it's worth pointing out that Tag is not the first Swiss watchmaker to bring out a smart watch. That honour goes to Mondaine, who unveiled the Mondaine Helvetica 1 Smart in the summer. The brand, famous for its iconic Swiss railway dial, stayed true to its own traditions and produced a smart watch that is simple and driven by utility.

Its smart functions, provided by the same tech firm that powers Nike and Jawbone wearables, offer activity and sleep tracking, with an accompanying app telling you how many steps you've taken next to a set goal or how many times you wake up during the night. It also sits in a different price band to Tag Heuer, with the Helvetica 1 Smart retailing at just under $1000.

Mondaine

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Will a luxury watch's smart functions ever have the desirability of their mechanical movements and complications?

Disrupt Your Feed

Mechanical watches have more smarts than any of the so-called smart watches

Drop This Fact

In the coming months you'll be able to wear a dial on the Tag Heuer Connected designed in partnership with the brand's ambassadors, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Christiano Ronaldo